Switch: Scheduling more than one on/off per day

Hi All. I have a smart switch (CentraLite Switch) that I’d like to schedule to turn on and off more than once a day (to give a “lived in” appearance). Using the mobile app, for a given light/switch, I only see a way to schedule one On and one Off time.

To achieve what I’d like to do, I’ve tried creating two separate “Switches” each of which I add the same CentraLite Switch Thing to. Then, I set Switch #1 with the first on/off schedule and Switch #2 with the second on/off schedule. A quick test shows that this appears to work. It seemed a little odd doing it this way (it would be easier to schedule each on/off in the same Switch, but I’m still learning the ST model/config), so I wanted to check here to see if this is the right/best way to do what I’d like to do.

Thanks in advance!

I think that should work. For one light l might use hello home actions as they can easily control a light and you can create several of them. This might be impractical if you want to do this for many lights, but for one light to create a lived in look it should work. I would like to see a smart app that cycles through several different lights over the course of a few days so that the house looks lived in while I’m on vacation. That might be my first smart app that I cut my teeth on creating.

Actually the more I think about, your switch option sounds more efficient than my way.

All you are doing is creating shortcuts (small apps) to the real device. You can have as many as you need. So you are doing it the right way.

Well, it’s a way to make it work, but it clutters up the app with redundant items. I’d much prefer to be able to add additional, turn lights off at options and add another time to the specific light or groups of lights. I often do this just because the signal does not always get picked up, so in some cases I will sent an off a message 3 times over 3 minutes. I also have default behavior where I like some lights on for a short period in the morning, then again in the evening. If I could use the same group over again I could do this too, but once I set something up with a group it won’t let me use it again. I’d prefer to have both of these options available.

Well, you’re stuck with shortcuts the way they are – one per event. If you want multiple events to happen, like your example of turning off 3 times in 3 minutes, you will need a SmartApp to do it. It isn’t at all hard to create these.

FWIW, part of the problem you have is trying to not “clutter” up the app. The app is pretty crappy as a UI to control your home – ActiON is much better, for example. I have so many shortcuts that the only time I even look at them is to add one or change something – never for direct control purposes. But, it is what it is, and people do things different ways.

If you could be specific with what you really need, I’d be happy to help you come up with an app, or two, to get it to work the way you want. When you install your own apps it doesn’t clutter anything up, except the My SmartApps section. You should be aware that even the shortcuts in Lights & Switches are just little apps. So creating other little apps that are variations is pretty easy to do.